1960s house inspiration

[Annalou30]

Hello, we are looking at buying a detached 1960s house. It needs a lot of work internally and externally but is a great size, on a great plot and in a great location.

However, I’m just not a 1960s house lover. My dream is a gorgeous Victorian property - bay windows, high ceiling and lots of curb appeal. Failing that, cottagey vibes or just something with character!

I quite like some midcentury style furniture but struggling to picture the whole look, and particularly how we can improve the outside.

Does anyone have/know of any great examples of 1960s transformations? Especially externally?

Don’t buy it. If it’s not a style you love you will never be settled.

I feel as though my opinion of the style is the lowest priority when it ticks all of our other, very specific, boxes for the whole family. So yes, inspiration is what I’m after!

This site will give you some inspiration and also look at Instagram for Mid Century Modern. https://themodernhouse.com/

Was just typing a recommendation for The Modern House.

I don't see why you can't have older style furniture in a 60s house. I grew up in one and we had loads of inherited antique stuff.

We’ve had 3 1960s houses and are just about to buy another. They usually have large rooms, a lot of light from large windows and if you’re lucky parquet flooring. The rooms are often so plain that you can make them your own and are a real blank canvas.
In our first one we had Chesterfield sofas, William Morris fabric and wall papers, wood doors and a solid fuel stove.
The second one was bought for space after living in a 1897 Victorian Villa. We took some of the old furniture and mixed it with solid oak pieces. We kept the wall plain in more neutral shades.
The third was near the coast with far reaching views. We enlarged the windows, put oak wood floors, replaced the doors with plain oak ones and furnished it in mid century modern, cream leather sofas and chrome highlight.
In our next one we’re probably going to have a modern farmhouse style, but no chintz! I can’t wait to get in there.

The fact you keep coming back to this style fills me with confidence! Yes it has all that you describe, although there are also some odd shaped windows too, so if budget allows I may try and open these up.

Have you ever done anything to the exterior? Render etc?

Ours is a sixties house. It had a very boring flat window at the front and we had it changed to a bow window to add the character we wanted. Hated my neighbours copying us.

What’s the outside like at the moment, OP? We live in a 60s house at the moment and absolutely love it. We’re actually not allowed to do anything to the outside as it’s protected, if that makes you feel any better about the desirability of 60s architecture! In our little group of houses, different neighbours have taken very different approaches to interior decoration. Some have full embraced mid-century modern style, others have a more traditional or a more modern look. As a pp said, because the architecture is very simple, it generally works well as a blank canvas for different styles.

“Have you ever done anything to the exterior? Render etc?”

To the first one, no. It was our first house and we had no money. At the second one we just replaced the dreadful 60s windows with more simple design. Also added a huge fully glazed ‘bay’ window at the back. This replaced the original 7ft window, the old wooden conservatory and opened up the back view of the garden. The house had tile hanging as a feature to the front and back, which was ok. The third was a one off architect designed it already had cedar cladding, one of the features we liked, so nothing was done to the external look, other than enlarging the windows.
The one we’re buying is really ugly outside, plain and bits of render, so we’re replacing the windows, adding a tiled overhang and porch. It’s semi rural so want to acknowledge its situation.

This isn’t it, but similar in terms of unusual roof line, some slim windows (although others much larger) and poor quality stone work.

This. I lived in a 1960s house in the 1960s. A lot of our furniture was older because it's what my parents had. I do treasure the Ercol dining furniture I inherited though and have the receipt from 1964.